Ospreys wing Shane Williams showed his class as he produced a piece of magic for his side as they beat London Irish 27-16 in their Heineken Cup second round match played at the Liberty Stadium on Friday night.

Williams try came after right wing Tommy Bowe had scored another nicely taken try earlier in the game following a good piece of play by James Hook. Dan Biggar kicked four penalties on the night, but Hook himself added a penalty and a conversion.

For London Irish, Sailosi Tagicakibau scored an intercept try, and Ryan Lamb kicked 11 points. They were outplayed by Ospreys though who looked the hungrier side, and with moments of brilliance like was seen from Williams, theyve shown that theres plenty more to come.

Williams, now 33 years old and surely reaching the latter stages of his career, scored the wonderful try on the occasion of his 50th Heineken Cup match. "I had been finding it really difficult to get involved in games this season, but I felt sharp," he said.

"I just wanted a crack, to be honest. I feel pretty good. It was a very tough game and there was a lot of pressure on us to play well. It would have been doom and gloom in Wales had we lost."

London Irish head coach Toby Booth was full of praise for Williams after the game.

"He came up with something exceptional - it was Shane Williams at his best. I am all for the entertainment business, and it was a great piece of skill by him. It's what the Heineken Cup is about, and he has been doing that for a long time," he said.

If there's something in particular that you spotted this weekend that you feel should be featured here on Rugbydump, please post a
request
, or get in touch via
email
.

i guess that is what a full pre-season for the first time in 8 years can give you. i say he can still go on more many more years if he is allowed to play less and train more.

and j.r could not do that. and if you look at the try scoring records sw is vastly superior. remember jr did have a world cup winning pack that gave him lots of opportunities. still a great though. just not sw great

Williams is a super talent. He's not a percentage player who will always do the right thing or never lose the ball, but he reminds me of David Campese - pure genius, you never know what he is going to do or where he is going to go, and even after he does it you don't know how the hell he did it.

I reckon Shane Williams must be the most annoying player in the world, if you're a 2nd/3rd rower like me, in a sort of "come here, puny little winger. stand still so I can crush you, no, don't run!..." way, but he is one class player. He has that impredictable factor so few players have. Williams and cooper are visionaries

Yeah the thing about Shane Williams is, is that he attracts the common fan. I'm not trolling or anything, but really there is more to rugby than side stepping. His defense is incredibly poor and you can't blame it on his size because Geo Aplon does just fine.

Obviously he is one of the stand out players in the NH, and because they don't have many talents up north, his skills must be celebrated to such an in your face level, like... "YEAH LOOK WHAT SHANE JUST DID I BET ONLY 12 OF THE GENERIC MAORIS IN THE ITM CUP COULD DO THAT HUH YEAH". This is just how I feel, don't remove my post RD, thanks.

I disagree Guuin. I've seen a lot of rugby (both NH and SH competitions) and Shane Williams, when he is on top of his game, is a fantastic player. He's not pulling off things like this 100% of the time, but when he does, it's pretty great stuff.

He does alright on defense (no, not as good as a big NZ winger or, as you even pointed out, as committed as Gio Aplon). He played scrumhalf for a while, so I think he's got that scrumhalf attitude on defense, but he's far from the worst defensive winger around.

But looking back on his decade-long career, you'll see he's a pretty inspiring winger. Maybe he's not for everyone, but as a winger myself, I love watching him put the moves on players.

The first part of your post was reasonable, the second came off as kind of a dick comment, but whatever.

He is the kind of player who can spark a game into life with moments like this maybe he does have his off games like most players do there only human but more often than not if the ball is good shane will produce....p.s he is not the fastest player in the Welsh squad Tom Prydie is.

Whoever thinks Jason Robinson couldn't do this is having a laugh. The chip and chase, as seen by Williams here, is ridiculously popular in League. You even see forwards attempt it.

Here's the problem with this sort of thing, it's not that it isn't great when it comes off. It's that 98% of the time it doesn't come off, the ball isn't kicked right, and even when it is you'd be lucky to get a good bounce.

Chris lets be honest mate how can you call gathering the ball one handed out of the air while avoiding a player handing of another then sprinting 45-50 yards to score in the corner lucky?? maybe the bounce was lucky but you make your own luck....classic try from one of the most exciting players in the world.

Ffs it's a great try, cant you just give it some credit?? So sick of armchair pundits around the world putting down quality rugby. Give credit where credit it due, and just enjoy. Life must be really depressing viewing things through your eyes. Lighten the f*ck up. You might find rugby a helluva lot more enjoyable :)

This is a wonderful try, whether he's Jason Robinson, Gio Aplon, Christian Cullen or Shane Williams. It's simply a very good try. End of story.

Chris lets be honest mate how can you call gathering the ball one handed out of the air while avoiding a player handing of another then sprinting 45-50 yards to score in the corner lucky?? maybe the bounce was lucky but you make your own luck....classic try from one of the most exciting players in the world.

..........

You misunderstand me. I'm saying he's lucky that the ball sat up right.

If he was that good, as people imply, he could do this all the time. He can't. Why not? Because such plays are heavily dependant on luck. And 98% of the time the kick wouldn't be just right, neither would the bounce.

How many times has Williams attempted this and failed. That's the real question here?

My problem isn't with Williams, I'd just hate to see tons of players trying this and kicking away posession. Which is already a big problem in recent years

Make no mistake I am downloading this game and putting this try in my next highlights video, lol.

Chris, I'm sure you'll be able to post several clips of Jason Robinson (also a great player) scoring similar tries where he chips to himself.

....

Lol i can't... but I can find you videos of crap players doing this.

In a year or two when everyone and their mother thinks they can do this you'll be thanking me. I've seen what the chip and chase has done to League(where posession is EVERYTHING). I'd hate to see what it could do to Rugby(where field position is more important)

Heed the warning. It won't be long until you see John Smit trying this.

Chris why are you taking away from a very well executed try? I just don't understand it. Very few players DO actually manage to pull this off, but Williams did, so it's a good try. Are you trying to insinuate that Williams attempts that every time he gets the ball?? Because he doesn't.

The chip and chase has been part of rugby forever. You're a little deluded in your views mate, not to mention extremely cynical. If it was a player from your fav team, or even your fav player, who did it I'd imagine you'd be singing his praises.

You're entitled to your opinion but the majority of us want to come here just to enjoy good rugby, not to listen to some kid slating and dissecting everything that's posted. Give it a rest please pal.

super try, not many players could have pulled that off! hard to believe he's nearly 34 years of age as well and still going strong.. word of note tho shane, dont ease up when going towards the line or a covering defender will try and decapitate you to knock the ball out lol ojo was probably getting him back for hurdling him earlier in the game!

Look to be honest I don't like Shane Williams..... because I think that everything is in proportion if you get my drift and in this case it doesn't float my boat. Give me a strapping 6foot4 wing any day ;)

Absolute pleasure watching Shane at work. After that game I thought we may just give Munster a good seeing to.

Then I saw the Munster Toulon game... It looks like Munster and Leicester have woken up.

Should be a great HC - really couldn't say who will win this one.

Welsh selection came out today and I was surprised to see they had picked Tom Prydie - must be linked with Gatlands contract extension. He's looking to blood a youngster with international experience to make him an excellent replacement for Bryne at fullback. Thought Josh Turnbull deserved a call up though.

After 70 odd caps 50 odd international tries against ALL competition....probably the highest percentage of highlight reel tries of anyone it boggles my mind that this player still gets so little respect. His defence is not awesome, but its far from poor and anyone who watches him consistently will know he shirks nothing. For you doubting Kiwis Justin Marshall said he had the best feet of anyone he ever played with or against. That is quite a compliment considering the legends he graced the field with.

I must say though the number 11 had a chance to absolutely nail Williams when he was catching the ball. It was almost as though he either a) didn't want to hurt him or b) wasn't sure whether he was in the air or not or whether he had control of the ball.

Andy summed up my thoughts exactly, I'd go with b) not sure whether he'd be pinged for smashing williams in the air!

'I must say though the number 11 had a chance to absolutely nail Williams when he was catching the ball. It was almost as though he either a) didn't want to hurt him or b) wasn't sure whether he was in the air or not or whether he had control of the ball.'

2. In comparisons to Robinson, they have the same build and world-beating sidesteps. Williams is more creative; Robinson vastly superior defensively. Shane's achieved a hell of a lot for Wales and Robinson won almost everything there is to win in BOTH codes. Both players are all-time greats.

3. Just shows how useful 20m pace is in rugby - you can see a quicker man in Topsy Ojo make up a hell of a lot of ground getting back to him, but very few people could beat Shane over 20m.

great try but a great rugby player, to the SH troll going on about shane's defence, you must be talking about shane 3 or 4 years ago, shane has done a lot of work on his denfence and whereas he will never be a huge hitter (you are born a big hitter you dont become one) he still makes a lot more tackles now than he used too

P.s. anonymous - i have heard that tom prydie is the fastest player in the welsh squad its just a shame we have never really seen him having a good run with ball in hand